Counter-Narratives for Resistance

Teacher Tips

In this lesson, students learn the facts and investigate the political reasons behind six common myths that have helped to form the dominant narrative about slavery in the US over time. Although there are many more myths than those provided here, I’ve tried to select a wide range of dis/misinformation that is still in circulation today, featuring some falsehoods that originated from the Antebellum period to justify slavery while it was happening, some from the Reconstruction era to support the Lost Cause, and some from contemporary conversations on the internet to perpetuate racial injustice in the present. 

This lesson presupposes that students have a basic understanding of American slavery, racism, and white supremacy, as well as an understanding that anti-Black racial injustice is still happening today. The lesson also assumes that the classroom environment is equipped to handle discussions about racism and white supremacy. Consider factors such as student-to-student relationships as well as the dynamic between students and teacher. 

• TIP: Frequently remind students of your previously established guidelines for class discussion and the phone/technology policy, because students’ full attention is necessary for lessons of this nature to succeed. 

NOTE: All of the myths except #6 are directly found within the primary source texts assigned later in the unit. 

• TIP: If it is not relevant to your classroom/community, you may want to remove Myth #6 from the lesson. If so, remove the line “The Irish were slaves, too.” from the opening slide and alter the corresponding line on the Myths about US Enslavement Notes Sheet.
  • Editable Google Doc version

Myths #2, #3, and #4 are refuted through each of the four slave narratives and in David Walker’s Appeal. Olaudah Equiano’s slave narrative also counters Myths #1 and #5. The lesson pairing Thomas Jefferson’s Notes and David Walker’s Appeal examines Myths #4 and #5.

Essential Questions

• How do dominant narratives perpetuate injustice?
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how we view racial justice issues in the present?

Objectives

• Identify 6 myths about the transatlantic slave trade & slavery in the US.
• Examine the political purposes behind myths about slavery.
• Use historical knowledge & critical thinking to challenge myths about slavery.

Key Vocabulary

Dominant Narrative: (noun) (definition adapted from Dominant Narratives – Inclusive Teaching)

• The mainstream story or explanation about an event, person, or time period. 
• Told by the media (news, newspapers, TV, movies, magazines, internet, etc.) and powerful people (politicians, leaders, religious figures, etc.).
• Oversimplified and incomplete, but the most influential. 
• Story suits the interests of those currently in power. It’s convenient and acceptable to them. It preserves the status quo (the way things are) instead of changing the balance of power in society. 
• Usually achieves dominance through repetition, the apparent authority of the speaker (members of the dominant culture), and the silencing of alternative accounts.

Counter-Narrative: (noun) (definition adapted from Counter-Narrative) 

• The alternative story or explanation about an event, person, or time period. 
• Told by the underrepresented people on the margins (people of color, poor people, LGBTQ+ people, white women, disabled people, etc.)
• Enables a different perspective to be heard, allowing alternate ways of understanding. 
• Story disrupts and resists the status quo (the way things are) instead of maintaining the balance of power in society. 
• Has been silenced or ignored, often because of the lack of authority of the speakers (marginalized people).

Myth: (noun)

• A false belief about what happened in the past, a particular person, or a group of people that fits within and upholds the dominant narrative.

Marginalization/Marginalized people: 

• Imagine a piece of paper. The margins are the borders, the edges where no writing goes. When someone/a group of people is pushed to the margins (edges) of society, other peoples’ needs are prioritized and centered. When someone is marginalized, they are discriminated against and don’t receive equal opportunities. 
• “Marginalization, also called social marginalization, occurs when a person or groups of people are less able to do things or access basic services or opportunities. It’s also sometimes referred to as social exclusion.” From What is marginalization? What to do if you are marginalized? | liberties.eu 

Racism: (noun)

• Negative attitudes toward people of color as a group or as a concept, as well as the systemic denial of rights, services, and resources on the basis of race.

Anti-Blackness/Anti-Black Racism: (noun)

• Systems and beliefs that take power, resources, and agency away from Black people/African-descended peoples, cultures, and interests, specifically. 

White Supremacy: (noun)

• The false belief that all people can be grouped based on race and then ranked, with white people at the top of the hierarchy and Black people at the bottom. White supremacy “Others” and dehumanizes people of color. 
• A system of exclusion made to hoard power and material resources for light-skinned Europeans and EuroAmericans by taking power and material resources away from other groups. 
• White supremacy is present when political, economic, and/or social systems benefit white people, white culture, and their interests at the expense of those labeled nonwhite, their cultures, and their interests.
• White supremacy can be intentional AND unintentional. Ex: A person may say they do not hate or dislike Black people while at the same time advocating for building a highway through a Black neighborhood to connect the city to a suburb where primarily white people live. The action of demolishing the Black neighborhood prioritizes the interests of white people over the interests of Black people.

Indentured Servant: (noun)

• An indentured servant is someone who labors for another person under a contract for a set period of time. At first, indentured servants were from European countries such as England, Ireland, and Germany. Rarely, they were from Africa or indigenous to the American continent during these early years in the 1600s. European indentured servants typically worked four- to seven-year terms without pay in return for the boat voyage to the British colony, room, and board. Someone convicted of a crime in England could also be sent to the colonies as an indentured servant as punishment and as an alternative to hanging. Indentured servants were often forced to serve for extra years as punishment for their actions in the colonies such as becoming pregnant or stealing. After completing their term, they were frequently given land, clothes, and provisions by the person they had been laboring under. 
• Over the course of the 17th century, Africans were denied the ability to be indentured servants, and European indentured servants were replaced with enslaved African, African American, and Indigenous American people. The elite colonial politicians changed the laws in the late 1600s to drive a wedge between the Africans and poor Europeans because the elites wanted to stop them from banding together to overthrow the colonial elites. Under the new laws, Africans were to be enslaved for life, and slave status was hereditary, while poor Europeans gained legal and economic privileges such as lesser punishments for the same crime. These laws were the first time “white” was used to describe and set apart an entire group of people, reserving special privileges for them; before this, Europeans thought of themselves using nationality terms such as “English” and only used “white” neutrally to describe pale skin color. Historians now call the privileges given to poor Europeans “racial bribes” because these laws incentivized thinking about oneself as “white” and thus inherently superior to “Black” Africans. These laws solidifed ideas about freedom equaling white and slavery equaling Black. Even if a European person was not rich, they felt like they had more in common with the wealthy elites because they were both “white” and “free,” so they were less likely to see how the elites were exploiting them, too.

Enslaved Person:* (noun)

• In the 17th through 19th centuries, million of Africans and their descendants were forced to become enslaved persons in the land we now call the United States. An enslaved person is someone whose human rights have been legally denied to them so that someone else can extract their knowledge, skills, body parts, and labor. Enslavers used torture, violence, psychological terror, and threats to force enslaved people to serve the enslaver in whatever ways that person wanted.
• In the US, wealthy aristocratic enslavers passed laws in Virginia in 1662 making enslavement hereditary through the line of the mother, which means a person was enslaved from birth until death if their mother was enslaved. These laws offered a financial incentive for enslavers to rape and forcibly impregnate the people they enslaved, and they set aside entire generations as outsiders and non-citizens. 
• European and EuroAmerican enslavers justified the institution of chattel slavery they had made by dehumanizing African people, declaring that they don’t really feel pain, grief, or love because “Black” people are biologically inferior to “white” people. Europeans and EuroAmericans explained why it was morally acceptable – even good – for them to dominate and destroy other human beings by creating white supremacist ideas in science, medicine, philosophy, and literature.
• Native American people were also enslaved by European colonists. Laws in Virginia eventually made this illegal. Since Native Americans knew the land and language and had community ties in the area, it was easier for them to resist and escape bondage. Because of this, enslaved Native peoples were often deported to work on Caribbean island plantations, and the continental US depended primarily on enslaved Africans and African Americans.
  • Avoid using “slave” as a noun. Instead, center the humanity of those enslaved by focusing on what is actively being done to the person.

Enslaver:* (noun)

• A person who enslaves others and holds them in bondage to extract their knowledge, skills, body parts, and labor.
  • Avoid “slave owner” or “master,” which mask and normalize the inherent violence and the active role of this person in the institution of slavery. 
  • For clarity of meaning, you may occasionally need to use terms from the time period such as “slave trader” and “legal owner” to specify different roles within the institution. 

Chattel Slavery: (noun)

• A system of enslavement in which enslaved people are legally considered “chattel” or “movable property,” the same as a chair or a horse. Since they were property, they did not have any rights and could not legally own goods or their bodies, labor, knowledge, and skills. They were denied their own separate legal identity.

*For best practices regarding word choice when discussing slavery, refer to Writing about “Slavery”? This Might Help

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS:

• Print one copy of the Myths about US Enslavement Notes Sheet for each student.
  • PDF version
  • Google Doc version
• Print slides #9-27 from the unit slideshow. 
• Make 6 stations by taping the slides for each myth onto the wall or tables in 6 designated areas.
  • NOTE: Myth #3 contains a video clip: Kanye West Stirs Up TMZ Newsroom Over Trump, Slavery, Free Thought | TMZ  The timestamp for this video is 1:14-1:28. I recommend placing a laptop/tablet with this video clip at this station. Display the slide in slideshow presentation mode on that device and direct students to click the video when they are ready.
• Decide how to divide the class into 6 small groups of 3-4. Fill out the “partnerships” slide so students will be able to see which group they are in and where to begin the Gallery Walk when it is time. 

DURING CLASS: 

Opening Activity:

• Go over the relevant vocabulary. Explain that although the word “myth” is often used to refer to folktales or traditional stories (eg. “Greek & Roman myths”), in this unit, a myth is “a false belief about what happened in the past, a particular person, or a group of people that fits within and upholds the dominant narrative.” 
• Review the essential questions and objectives slides with the students. 
• Say, “To see how common these myths about slavery are, we are going to do a short activity. Stand up if you have ever heard the statement I am about to show you. You might have seen it online, or heard it from a friend, a family member, or even a teacher before. As I read each myth, stand if you’ve heard of it before, sit if you’ve never heard it. Remember, just because you’ve heard it before that does not mean you believe it. No one is going to assume you believe the myth if you stand up.”
  • As you click through the slide, the slide will display each myth. Give students time between myths to stand up, stay standing, or sit down based on whether they have heard this statement before. 
  • You may want to sit or stand to show them if you were previously familiar with these myths as well. 
  • You may want to give the standing students an opportunity to speak briefly about where they have heard that myth before and what they thought about it at the time. However, I don’t recommend requiring them to share with the class. You could also ask students to be silent during the entire activity.
  • After this activity, you may want to ask the students to do a short writing exercise reflecting on what they have just heard and predicting what they are going to learn next.
    • NOTE: You might not see many students standing. In my classroom, students had only heard the myths, “Some slave owners were kind & treated their slaves like family” and “Slavery benefited the enslaved because it exposed them to Christian civilization.” They reporting hearing these from teachers, other adults, and peers. 

Gallery Walk:

• Give each student a printed copy of the Myths about US Enslavement Notes Sheet. Go over what the questions are asking students to look for at each station. 
• Preface the activity by explaining, “The myths and the primary source examples that accompany them use vocabulary that we should not use unless we are saying these words as a direct quote when discussing the source. These words include out-dated terms for Black people such as ‘Negro’ and ‘the blacks.’ Those terms are commonly considered offensive today. We should say ‘Black people’ or we could say ‘African American people’ when specifically referring to people who were of African descent and born in the US.”
• Display the “partnerships” slide to show how the class is divided into 6 small groups.
• Model behavior expectations for the Gallery Walk. Ask students to walk around the room with their small group, stop at each station, and work together to fill out their notes sheet. Direct them to stay at each station until they hear the 6 minute station timer.
  • TIP: Use clipboards or ask students to use the back of their binder/notebook for a flat writing surface. 
  • NOTE: If you use 6 minutes for each station, this activity will take 36 minutes total. You may want to give the students more or less time. Feel free to replace the station timer video with another timer video, or play it by ear based on the amount of time students are taking in the moment. I recommend giving them too little time rather than too much to prevent students from drifting into inappropriate comments about the subject matter and other classroom management issues. 

Exit Ticket:

• After all of the groups visit each station, ask students to return to their seats. 
• Review the key takeaways. You may want to ask students to share their takeaways first, before you display this slide. 
• Display the prompt on the “exit ticket” slide. Direct students to select one prompt and respond to it.
  • NOTE: Instead of writing, you could ask students to verbally share their answer with someone who was not in their group or with the person sitting next to them

Citations and Recommended Reading

• Sources for vocabulary:
  • Africans in America | Part 1 | Narrative | From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery 
  • Writing about “Slavery”? This Might Help
• Sources for Myth #1: “Africans sold their own people.”
  • Black history classes in Staunton, Waynesboro help bust myths of America that many learned
  • Slavery Myths
  • A History of African Traders of Enslaved People
  • Teaching the Transatlantic Slave System
• Sources for Myth #2: “Some slave owners were kind & treated their slaves like family.”
  • PBS Africans in America 
  • Slavery Myths
• Sources for Myth #3: “Slaves didn’t fight back.” / “Slavery was a choice.”
  • PBS Africans in America
  • PBS Africans in America
  •  Slavery Myths 
• Sources for Myth #4: “Slavery benefited the enslaved because it exposed them to Christian civilization.”
  • How Christian Slaveholders Used the Bible to Justify Slavery 
  • Myths and Misconceptions: Slavery and the Slave Trade
  • Letter from Robert E. Lee to Mary Randolph Custis Lee (December 27, 1856) – Encyclopedia Virginia  
• Sources for Myth #5: “Slavery in the Americas was just like slavery in Rome.” / “The world has always had slavery.”
  • Thomas Jefferson 
  • Jay Eshelman
  • The Origins of American Slavery 
  • Myths and Misconceptions: Slavery and the Slave Trade
• Sources for Myth #6: “The Irish were slaves, too.”
  • The curious origins of the ‘Irish slaves’ myth 
  • Slavery Myths 
• Recommended Reading:
  • “If there were no buyers there would be no sellers”: Teaching the Transatlantic Slave System, c.1450 – c.1850 
  • Fighting myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings about race, slavery and the Civil War – Virginia Mercury 
  • Library of Congress – Digital Collections – Slavery in America: A Resource Guide 

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts; The History of White People by Neil Irwin Painter

Teacher Tips

Slave narratives are a literary genre that attempted to stir up the white population against slavery by telling the truth of the brutality of the system through the firsthand stories of formerly enslaved persons. They are classified as either Antebellum or Postbellum based on when and how they were recorded and published, as well as their content.

In this lesson, students prepare to read slave narratives by learning about the genre characteristics, historical context, and selected authors. First, students learn the defining characteristics of the slave narrative genre and the elements that differ between Antebellum and Postbellum narratives. Then, students read brief biographies of each of the four authors that appear in the subsequent lesson (Lesson 3: Slave Narratives Jigsaw). 

If you don’t want to use the Foldable, you may use this worksheet version that covers Lessons 2 and 3:

• Slave Narrative Genre & Primary Source Notes Sheet_Dresch.pdf
• Editable Google Doc version 

Content warning: This lesson includes mention of the repeated rape of enslaved girls and women through Harriet Jacobs’ life and narrative. 

NOTE: Slave narratives are also called “freedom narratives” or “liberation narratives,” to avoid using the dehumanizing word “slave.” I have chosen to use the prevailing genre term in this lesson, since it is the name most commonly encountered in higher education and media. You may want to draw attention to these choices and discuss the effects of the genre’s name with your students.

Essential Questions

• How does literature serve as a vehicle for both social inequity and social justice? 
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how we view racial justice issues in the present?
• How do counter-narratives speak truth to power?

Objectives

• List the genre characteristics & goals of Antebellum & Postbellum slave narratives.
• Understand the biographical & historical context behind 4 Antebellum slave narratives.

Key Vocabulary

Antebellum (adj.)

• Refers to the time before the US Civil War. 
• “Antebellum is a Latin word that means ‘before the war.’ In American history, the antebellum period refers to the years after the War of 1812 (1812–15) and before the Civil War (1861–65).” From Antebellum Period | Encyclopedia.com 

Postbellum (adj.)

• Refers to the time after the US Civil War.
• A Latin word that means ‘after the war.’
• Often dated from 1865-1877 (same as the Reconstruction era).
• In the context of slave narratives, “postbellum” means any first-hand autobiographical narrative by a formerly enslaved person written or recorded after 1865.

Abolitionism/The abolitionist movement: (noun)

• “The movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.” From Abolitionism – Wikipedia 

Abolition: (noun)

• The action or an act of abolishing (officially ending) a system, practice, or institution.

Abolitionist: (noun)

• A person who supports the abolitionist movement. 

Propaganda: (noun):

• information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

Plantation: (noun)

• Plantations were the most dominant form of agriculture in the US South from the 1600s to the late 1800s. A plantation was a large operation for growing cash crops entirely dependent on the forced physical labor, skills, and knowledge of unfree people, primarily enslaved African and African American people and also enslaved Indigenous peoples. In the early British colonies, wealthy European and EuroAmerican elites also exploited unfree contract laborers called indentured servants. Plantations are a form of unequitable labor camp in which a small number of people oppress a larger number of people, using violence and dehumanization to extract goods, services, children, and knowledge. On a large plot of land was typically a mansion, often referred to as the “Big House,” where the enslavers lived in luxury, several rough outbuildings without amenities where enslaved people were forced to live, a separate building for the kitchen, a stable for livestock, and a smokehouse or other food storage building. The land on which these plantations were established was stolen by Europeans from Indigenous nations using violence or canceled, disregarded, and deceitful treaties.

Cash crop: (noun)

• A single type of plant grown on a large portion of land solely for the purposes of selling to make a large profit, not for the growers to eat or use personally. Cash crops in the Southern British colonies included tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton. In Virginia, tobacco was the main cash crop, followed by cotton. A large portion if not most of these crops were exported, or sent to other countries, primarily Great Britain, to sell.

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS:

• Print one copy of the Foldable Notes Graphic Organizer for each student. This should be double-sided, so make sure you are printing page 1 as the front and page 2 as the back of each piece of paper.
  • Foldable Notes Graphic Organizer PDF

DURING CLASS:

• Instruct students on how to make the foldable organizer. Fold the Foldable Notes Graphic Organizer in half, using the line in the middle. Then, fold the sides in half again on the lines, creating four equal sections. Finally, fold it shut. You should now have a pamphlet with a front title page, back reflections page, two sections inside about the slave narrative genre, and four sections inside on each author/text when fully opened. 

To learn about the slave narrative genre:

• Direct students to take notes on their foldable organizer as you read slides #33-35.
  • Slide #33 lists the overall genre characteristics. This information should go on the left side of the foldable.
  • Slide #34 provides the Antebellum information. This information should go on the right side of the foldable in the box under the Antebellum header.
  • Slide #35 provides the Postbellum information. This information should go on the right side of the foldable in the box under the Postbellum header.

To learn biographical & contextual information for slave narratives:

• Direct students to take notes on their foldable organizer as they read about each of the four authors on slides #37-40. In this lesson, they will only fill out the top section for each author/text, under the header “About the author/text.”
  • NOTE: There are many ways to do this activity. You may set this up like a Gallery Walk in which students walk around the room to each of the four author stations. Or, you could assign one person to each student and do this Jigsaw style. As an extension, you could require students do additional research on one person. 
  • To conclude with a review game, you could modify 20-questions to create an interactive game in which students guess which person you/a peer are thinking of by asking 5 to 10 yes or no questions (eg. “Is the person a man or a woman?” “Are they a British subject?”). However, since the topics involved are of a sensitive nature, use discretion when assessing if this would be an appropriate method for your classroom. 

• Exit Ticket: Display the prompt on the “exit ticket” slide #41. Direct students to select one prompt and respond to it.
  • Whose story are you most interested in reading? Why?
  • What do you hope to learn by reading the narratives?
    • NOTE: You may want students to write this on the back page of their Foldable Graphic Organizer in the first Reflections box. 
    • NOTE: Instead of writing, you could ask students to verbally share their answer with the person sitting next to them.

Citations and Recommended Reading

Sources for Vocabulary: 

• Antebellum Period | Encyclopedia.com
• The Plantation System | National Geographic Society

Sources for Lesson:

• An Introduction to the Slave Narrative
• Stories of slavery, from those who survived it 
• Born in Slavery
• Excerpts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano | World History Commons 
• Mary Prince & The First Slave Narrative by a Woman
• Frederick Douglass
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Recommended Reading:

• About this Collection | Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938

Teacher Tips

In this lesson, students participate in a jigsaw activity to learn how enslaved peoples’ stories are counter-narratives for resistance. First, the student reads the excerpt from their assigned slave narrative; this is called independent learning in the slides. Then, the student joins a small group of students who also read this same narrative; this is called an expert group. Finally, students convene in a small group of four people to teach each other about their assigned narrative and learn about the narratives they have not read themselves; these are called collaborative learning groups. 

Slides #45 and #49 are provided for you to divide your class into groups.

This lesson takes 3-5 class periods.

This lesson presumes that students already know how to annotate texts and can participate in group learning. 

Content warning: This lesson includes mention of the repeated rape of enslaved girls and women through Harriet Jacobs’ life and narrative. 

You may use the page counts to differentiate which text to assign to which students. Here are the page counts for each text:

Equiano = 7 pages

Prince = 5 pages

Douglass = 8 pages

Jacobs = 5 pages

The excerpted texts may be too lengthy for your students in the time allotted or in the Jigsaw method, which requires that they read the text by themselves first. You may want to edit the excerpts to make them shorter. You can find all the PDFs and editable Google Docs in this folder: Slave Narratives.

Although the Foldable Graphic Organizer asks “Which myth(s) does the author challenge? How does the author challenge the myth(s)?” you might want to direct students to look for challenges to one specific myth in all of the texts, or assign one myth to each text. Myths #2, #3, and #4 are refuted through each of the four slave narratives. Olaudah Equiano’s slave narrative also counters Myths #1 and #5.

If you don’t want to use the Foldable, you may use this worksheet version that covers Lessons 2 and 3:

• Slave Narrative Genre & Primary Source Notes PDF
• Editable Google Doc version

Essential Questions

• How does literature serve as a vehicle for both social inequity and social justice? 
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how we view racial justice issues in the present?
• How do counter-narratives speak truth to power?

Objectives

• Understand the diverse experiences of Black people during slavery times.
• Identify how enslaved people resisted bondage. 
• Support analysis claims with textual evidence from sources.
• Use primary sources, historical knowledge, & critical thinking to challenge myths about slavery.

Key Vocabulary

You may want to read through each slave narrative and select words from each that you anticipate students not understanding. (For example, in the Prince text, students need to know that “licks” refers to physical attacks/beatings, not licking with one’s tongue.) You may want to make a vocabulary sheet for each text that provides definitions. Give the sheet to the students assigned to that text. 

Abolitionism/The abolitionist movement: (noun)

• “The movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.” From Abolitionism – Wikipedia 

Abolition: (noun)

• The action or an act of abolishing (officially ending) a system, practice, or institution.

Abolitionist: (noun)

• A person who supports the abolitionist movement.

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS:

• Divide students into jigsaw groups. Fill out the slides #45 and #48 to show groupings.
• Print copies of each text.
  • You can find all the PDfs and editable Google Docs in this folder: Slave Narratives.

DURING CLASS:

• Opening Thought: Direct students to do a Write-Pair-Share to respond to these two questions:
  • What does it mean to “speak truth to power”?
  • How are slave narratives a way of “speaking truth to power”?
• Jigsaw: Hand out texts. Ask students to get out their Foldable Graphic Organizer from the previous lesson. 
• Start with independent reading of their assigned text. Tell students they don’t have to read every word carefully. It’s valid to skim for this.
• Direct students to annotate the text (highlight, make notes, underline). Write questions & comments in the margins.
  • Read with a purpose! Look for & annotate
  • Details that challenge myths about slavery, Black people, &/or Africa.
  • Details that demonstrate how enslaved people fought back & resisted slavery.
    • Look for resistance on both the small/subtle & large/overt scale.
• After students have read the text themselves, direct them to form expert groups. In this group of students who have all read the same text, instruct them to:
  • Summarize the text, going over the main events page by page.
  • Discuss any questions you had about the text & the things that surprised you.
  • Discuss your annotations. Review together:
    • Details that challenge myths about slavery, Black people, &/or Africa.
    • Details that demonstrate how enslaved people fought back & resisted slavery.
    • Share where you saw resistance on both the small/subtle & large/overt scale.
  • Respond to the questions about your text on the foldable graphic organizer.
    • Which myth(s) does the author challenge?
    • How does the author challenge the myth(s)?
    • Quote(s) from the text to support your response:
  • Prepare each other to teach the text to classmates who have not read it.
• After the expert groups have gotten a chance to prepare, direct students to form collaborative learning groups. Instruct students to:
  • Sit with your new group. 
  • Take turns teaching each other about your assigned narrative by sharing a brief summary, then your responses to the questions on the foldable graphic organizer. 
  • By listening to your peers, you should be able to fill out the questions on the foldable graphic organizer for each text.
    • Which myth(s) does the author challenge?
    • How does the author challenge the myth(s)?
    • Quote(s) from the text to support your response:

• Recap on slide #48: Since this lesson takes several days, you may want to use these prompts for retrieval to activate a previous day’s reading. This is especially effective when done after the expert groups and before the collaborative learning groups. Direct students to select one prompt and respond to it:
  • What was the most surprising or interesting thing you’ve read in your assigned slave narrative so far?
  • What is one thing you would want someone who is NOT in our class to know about what you’ve read so far?
    • NOTE: You may want students to write this on the back page of their Foldable Graphic Organizer in the second Reflections box. 

• Exit Ticket: Display the prompt on the “exit ticket” slide #51. Direct students to select one prompt and respond to it.
  • Do you think young people today should be required to read slave narratives in school? Why or why not?
  • What are you beginning to think now that you were not thinking before?
  • What is one thing you would like people who aren’t in our class to know about the topic of slavery or race? Why is it important that they know this?
    • NOTE: You may want students to write this on the back page of their Foldable Graphic Organizer in the third Reflections box. 
    • NOTE: Instead of writing, you could ask students to verbally share their answer with the person sitting next to them.

Citations and Recommended Reading

Sources for lesson:

• The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. Vol. I. 
• The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. Related by Herself. With a Supplement by the Editor. To Which Is Added, the Narrative of Asa-Asa, a Captured African.
• Harriet Ann Jacobs.Incidents in the life of a slavegirl.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself

Teacher Tips

In this lesson, students delve into the ways that prominent US politician Thomas Jefferson advanced racist ideas and enslaved over 600 people while simultaneously asserting that “all men are created equal.” Students complicate the Founding Father’s commitment to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” by examining how white supremacist racial theories were created and used to dehumanize and justify subjugation of Black people. 

If you used Lesson 1, you can use the Jefferson text to discuss Myths #4 and #5. 

This lesson presumes that students know what the American Colonization Society (ACS) was. This lesson also presupposes that students know how to annotate texts. 

Content warning: This lesson includes mention of the repeated rape of enslaved girls and women when discussing Jefferson’s rape of Sally Hemings, who was a child when the sexual abuse began.

The primary source text is 3.5 pages long. You may wish to shorten the excerpt for your classroom. 

• PDF version of Notes on the State of Virginia 
• Editable Google Doc version of Notes on the State of Virginia

Essential Questions

• How does literature serve as a vehicle for both social inequity and social justice? 
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how we view racial justice issues in the present?
• How do dominant narratives perpetuate oppression?

Objectives

• Identify the white supremacist racial theories Black people were fighting against during the 1700s-1800s.
• Analyze the political purposes behind myths about slavery & race.
• Support analysis claims with textual evidence from sources.

Key Vocabulary

You may want to read through the text and select words that you anticipate students not understanding. You may want to provide a vocabulary sheet for the text that provides definitions.

Plantation: (noun)

• Plantations were the most dominant form of agriculture in the US South from the 1600s to the late 1800s. A plantation was a large operation for growing cash crops entirely dependent on the forced physical labor, skills, and knowledge of unfree people, primarily enslaved African and African American people and also enslaved Indigenous peoples. In the early British colonies, wealthy European and EuroAmerican elites also exploited unfree contract laborers called indentured servants. Plantations are a form of unequitable labor camp in which a small number of people oppress a larger number of people, using violence and dehumanization to extract goods, services, children, and knowledge. On a large plot of land was typically a mansion, often referred to as the “Big House,” where the enslavers lived in luxury, several rough outbuildings without amenities where enslaved people were forced to live, a separate building for the kitchen, a stable for livestock, and a smokehouse or other food storage building. The land on which these plantations were established was stolen by Europeans from Indigenous nations using violence or canceled, disregarded, and deceitful treaties.

Cash crop: (noun)

• A single type of plant grown on a large portion of land solely for the purposes of selling to make a large profit, not for the growers to eat or use personally. Cash crops in the Southern British colonies included tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton. In Virginia, tobacco was the main cash crop, followed by cotton. A large portion if not most of these crops were exported, or sent to other countries, primarily Great Britain, to sell.

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS:

• Print one copy of the primary source Notes on the State of Virginia and one copy of the Speaking Truth to Power Notes for each student.
  • Speaking Truth to Power Notes PDF
  • Notes on the State of Virginia PDF
  • Editable Google Doc version of primary source
  • Editable Google Doc version of Speaking Truth to Power Notes

DURING CLASS:

• Opening Thought: Direct students to respond to the prompt. You could do this as a Whiteboard Splash in which every student writes their answer on the board within 2 minutes. Then, step back and read the answers aloud, finding points of connection.
  • What words come to mind when you think about Thomas Jefferson? List the associations you have with this person or what you remember about him.
• Biography: Read Jefferson’s biographical information to the students from the slides.
  • As an extension, you could require students to do additional research on Jefferson and/or the people he enslaved by using the provided sources and recommended reading. This research could easily be an entire class period. 
• Read-Aloud
  • Hand out the primary source text and Speaking Truth to Power notes sheet.
  • Read Notes out loud. Encourage students to interrupt you to ask questions & challenge Jefferson’s claims (speak truth to power!). 
  • Students should be annotating the text while you read. The notes sheet asks them to annotate for SIT by highlighting passages that are Surprising, Intriguing, and Troubling. You may want to stop and summarize each paragraph or section as you read to ensure comprehension. You may want to direct students to write a brief comment in the margins summarizing the main ideas or their thoughts in each section.
  • During or after the reading, students should answer the questions in their Speaking Truth to Power notes sheet. You may want to review each question one at a time or discuss them all at the end.
    • What words would you use to describe Jefferson’s tone in his Notes?
    • What was Jefferson’s ethos? How did Jefferson have authority and credibility as a speaker?
    • What myths does Jefferson produce and promote about Black people and about slavery?
    • What incentives did Jefferson have to believe these myths? In other words, what did believing the myths enable or justify? 
    • What contradictions or hypocrisy do you notice in Jefferson’s Notes, or when comparing his actions to his words?
    • How do you think different audiences reacted to Jefferson’s Notes? Consider two of the following: Jefferson’s peers/Southern white aristocrats, Northern white members of the American Colonization Society, Black enslaved people, free Black people, Black and white abolitionists, and Indigenous peoples in the land now labeled Virginia.
• Exit Ticket: There are two Exit Ticket slides, since this lesson will take at least 2 class periods. Display the prompt on the “exit ticket” slide #61 or #62. Direct students to respond to the prompt.
  • Slide #61: How does reading Notes on the State of Virginia influence your thinking about Thomas Jefferson? In other words, what did you used to think about Jefferson? What are you thinking about him now?
  • Slide #62: Should this excerpt from Notes from the State of Virginia be required reading in US or Virginia history classes? Why or why not?
    • NOTE: Instead of writing, you could ask students to verbally share their answer with the person sitting next to them.
• OPTIONAL Extension Activity: Art Observation
  • This extension demonstrates another way of speaking truth to power through visual art. Direct students to do a Write-Pair-Share to respond to these two questions:
    • What details do you notice in this painting? Write your observations.
    • What messages do you think this painting sends about Thomas Jefferson and/or American society in general?
  • Discuss their responses as a class. 
  • Reveal that the name of the painting is “Behind the Myth of Benevolence” by Titus Kaphar (2014). Direct students to build on their previous answers and the title of the painting to respond to this question:
    • How can we use the title to interpret the messages of the painting?
  • Read the next slide aloud. Discuss the following question.
    • This painting does not attempt to literally depict Sally Hemings. She was light-skinned and resembled Jefferson’s wife Martha Jefferson, as she was Martha Jefferson’s half sister and the daughter of a biracial Black woman raped by Martha Jefferson’s father, John Wayles.
      • Why do you think the painter, Titus Kaphar, chose to feature a dark-skinned Black woman instead of literally painting Sally Hemings? 
      • Do you think this choice makes the painting more or less impactful?
        • Extend this activity by watching the YouTube video: Behind the Myth of Benevolence by Titus Kaphar: Great Art Explained 
• OPTIONAL Extension Activity: Coin Analysis
  • This nickel design has been used since 2006. From 1938-2006, Jefferson’s face was shown in profile on the front of the coin.
  • What details do you notice on this coin? Write your observations.
  • If someone did not know the facts about Monticello, what impression do you think they would get about Thomas Jefferson and/or the US based on this coin?
  • How does the back of the coin contradict the words on the front of the coin?
  • How could this coin reinforce myths about slavery?
  • What would you want to add or subtract to this design to speak truth to power?

Citations and Recommended Reading

Sources for lesson:

• Thomas Jefferson – Wikipedia 
• Thomas Jefferson, enslaved people, his enslaved family and liberty – New Jersey Education Association 
• Slavery at Monticello FAQs – Property 
• Thomas Jefferson
• Jefferson & Hemings
• Sally Hemings
• Beverly Frederick Jefferson
• Nickel | U.S. Mint for Kids 

Recommended Reading:

• The Life of Sally Hemings
• Photographs of people enslaved at Monticello 
• Enslaved People Who Gained Their Freedom 
• Thomas Jefferson, enslaved people, his enslaved family and liberty – New Jersey Education Association

Teacher Tips

In this lesson, students read David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, a contemporary Black response to Jefferson’s white supremacist racial theories asserted in Notes on the State of Virginia (1787). Published in 1829/30 (just a few years after Jefferson’s death in 1826), Walker rebukes Jefferson’s racist philosophies and calls enslaved people to revolt. This text pushes back against the idea that Jefferson was merely a “man of his time” who didn’t or couldn’t know any better by demonstrating that within this time period there was diversity of thought on the topics of slavery and race—especially by Black people both enslaved and free, who knew anti-Black oppression was cruel and unjust. Walker exposes the hypocrisy ofa government formed to guarantee “liberty and justice for all” while legally keeping human beings in bondage, and he embraces violent revolution against enslavers as a means to gain freedom. 

This lesson assumes that students have completed the prior lesson and are familiar with Jefferson’s Notes. This lesson also presupposes that students know how to annotate texts. 

If you used Lesson 1, you can use the Walker text to discuss Myths #2, #3, #4, and #5. 

The primary source text is 5 pages long. You may wish to shorten the excerpt for your classroom. 

• PDF version of Appeal
• Editable Google Doc version of Appeal

Essential Questions

• How does literature serve as a vehicle for both social inequity and social justice? 
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how we view racial justice issues in the present?
• How do counter-narratives speak truth to power?

Objectives

• Understand the diverse experiences of Black people during slavery times.
• Identify how free & enslaved Black people resisted the institution of slavery through abolitionist writing. 
• Support analysis claims with textual evidence from sources.
• Use primary sources, historical knowledge, & critical thinking to challenge myths about slavery.

Key Vocabulary

You may want to read through the text and select words that you anticipate students not understanding. You may want to provide a vocabulary sheet for the text that provides definitions.

Abolitionism/The abolitionist movement: (noun)

• “The movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.” From Abolitionism – Wikipedia 

Abolition: (noun)

• The action or an act of abolishing (officially ending) a system, practice, or institution.

Abolitionist: (noun)

• A person who supports the abolitionist movement.

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS

• Print one copy of the primary source text, David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, for each student.
  • PDF version of Appeal
  • Editable Google Doc version of Appeal

DURING CLASS

• Opening Thought: Direct students to respond to the prompts. You could do this as a Write-Pair-Share or small group discussion. 
  • Do you think abolitionists agreed with each other about how to end slavery?
  • What tactics or strategies for ending slavery do you think abolitionists considered? 
  • What tactic/strategy do you think was most popular among abolitionists? 
• Biography: Read Walker’s biographical information to the students from the slides.
  • As an extension, you could require students to do additional research on Walker and/or the historical context in which he was writing by using the provided sources and recommended reading. This research could be an entire class period. 
• Read Aloud: Hand out the primary source text. Direct students to get out their copy of the Speaking Truth to Power notes sheet. They should have already filled out one side in the prior lesson on Jefferson’s Notes. 
• Read Walker’s text out loud. 
• Students should be annotating the text while you read. The notes sheet asks them to annotate for SIT by highlighting passages that are Surprising, Intriguing, and Troubling. You may want to stop and summarize each paragraph or section as you read to ensure comprehension. You may want to direct students to write a brief comment in the margins summarizing the main ideas or their thoughts in each section.
• During or after the reading, students should answer the questions in their Speaking Truth to Power notes sheet. You may want to review each question one at a time or discuss them all at the end.
  • What words would you use to describe Walker’s tone in his Appeal? 
  • Which myths about slavery does Walker challenge in his Appeal? How does Walker refute them? 
  • Walker’s Appeal speaks directly to Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. How and why does Walker incorporate this text and its reception in his Appeal?
  • Walker references the Declaration of Independence, which Jefferson also wrote. How does he use this text to strengthen his argument?
  • Why do you think David Walker’s Appeal was negatively received by some white abolitionists, like William Lloyd Garrison?
  • Other than these white abolitionists, how do you think different audiences reacted to Walker’s Appeal? Consider two of the following: Southern white aristocrats, Northern white members of the American Colonization Society, Black enslaved people, free Black people, Black abolitionists, and Indigenous peoples in the land now labeled Virginia.
• Discussion Question: 
  • How could you use Walker’s Appeal to contradict the argument that enslavers like Jefferson “didn’t know any better” or that they were “men of their time”?
    • As an extension, students can read Let’s Set The History Record Straight. We Can’t Excuse Racists Like Thomas Jefferson As Just Being “Men Of Their Time.” – Essence  
• Exit Ticket: There are three Exit Ticket slides, since this lesson will take at least 3 class periods. Display the prompt on the “exit ticket” slide. Direct students to respond to the prompt.
  • Slide #78: How did reading the Appeal influence how you view the institution of slavery or how enslaved people resisted? 
  • Slide #79: Should this excerpt from the Appeal be required reading in US or Virginia history classes? Why or why not?
  • Slide #80: Choose one:
    • If you could turn your thoughts or feelings into actions right now, what would you do?
    • What surprised you about what you learned today?
    • What would you like someone who isn’t in our class to know about what we learned today?
      • NOTE: Instead of writing, you could ask students to verbally share their answer with the person sitting next to them

Citations and Recommended Reading

Sources for lesson:

• David Walker; David Walker The Fiery Militant; New World Encyclopedia

Teacher Tips

This lesson introduces students to the final unit project, in which students synthesize their learning from the unit into projects that help others understand the most important ideas/concepts. Students receive the list of options, work on the project in class, and present their projects to the class. This takes 4-6 class periods. 

Two examples of “Your Appeal” and two examples of the “Unit Soundtrack” projects can be found in this folder: Student Example Projects 

I recommend inviting other teachers, administrators, community members, and caregivers to the presentation day to celebrate your students’ learning. 
You may remove or add project options on the Editable Google Doc version. You may also delete or add to the Key Takeaways.

Essential Questions

• How do dominant narratives perpetuate oppression?
• How do counter-narratives speak truth to power?
• To what extent does our knowledge of the past influence how  we view racial justice issues in the present? 
• How does literature serve as a vehicle for both social inequity and social justice?

Objectives

• Understand the diverse experiences of Black people during slavery times.
• Identify how enslaved people resisted bondage. 
• Support claims with textual evidence from sources.
• Use primary sources, historical knowledge, & critical thinking to challenge myths about slavery.

Key Vocabulary

N/A for this final unit project

Context, Activities, and Exercises

BEFORE CLASS

• Print each student a copy of the List of Unit Project Options (PDF).
  • Editable Google Doc version
• Provide access to the Student Example Projects. 

DURING CLASS

• Review the “what we did” list on slide #84.
• Use slide #85 for reviewing the unit. The slide presents the four main essential questions and asks, Which question stands out to you the most? Why? You may want to direct students to free-write in response to this prompt or discuss in small groups.  
• Hand out the List of Unit Project Options.
• Review the key takeaways. 
• Direct students to add at least one more key takeaway in the space allotted on the paper. You may want to encourage them to think about how they would answer the essential question they chose in their previous discussion. 
• Review each project option with the class.
• Allow time for brainstorming. Help students think about which format would be best for them to explore their preferred essential question or demonstrate their key takeaway.
  • You may want to review the examples of Unit Soundtracks and Your Appeals with students. 
• Provide several class periods of work time on their projects.

Citations and Recommended Reading

N/A for this final unit project